In the coming days and weeks, as new Sixers GM Sam Hinkie and his advanced metrics approach to basketball are celebrated, remember the sage words of an NBA executive I talked to on Friday:
“This is ‘Moneyball,’ and ‘Moneyball hasn’t won a playoff series yet,” he says.
What about that 2009 first-round triumph over Portland?
“That wasn’t Moneyball,” the exec says, dismissively. “That was Yao Ming, who was a transcendent player.”
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Results for “andrew bynum” news
You remember Andrew Bynum don't you? Sixers traded their team for him last summer? He never appeared in a game because of knee problems? Wrecked the season? Destroyed Doug Collins' Philadelphia career?
Well, he's a hell of a dancer:
Note to Sixers' owners who are apparently, incredibly still thinking of bringing Bynum back: That might not be the best idea. Philly fans might enjoy a dancing center, but only if he's producing double-doubles on a regular basis.
While consumed with Kevin Ware's horrific injury and Mike Rice's abusive behavior, I suspect many of us missed the local NCAA angle: Drexel women's basketball is on the verge on winning the NIT championship. (The NIT is the tourney for teams that barely missed the NCAA tournament cut-off.) Last night at the DAC, the Dragons dispatched with the University of Florida, and on Saturday will face the winner of the other Final Four semifinal, between Utah and Kansas State. Those schools are bigger and richer than Drexel. But they don't breathe fire. Or have goofy billboards up on I-95. [Inquirer]
Aside from the miracle runs by Florida Golf Coast University and Philly's own La Salle Explorers, this year's NCAA mens' basketball tournament had been relatively uneventful- that is, until Sunday night, when a national television audience witnessed one of the most horrific and devastating injuries in the history of televised sports.
Andrew Bynum isn't coming back this year. Nor are the Sixers making the playoffs. There's nothing left to play for except the draft lottery, and that means not playing well at all. So to sell tickets, it appears the Sixers are making a last-ditch effort to appeal to their fans' predilection for nostagia and feel-good family affairs.
1. Damien Wilkins, nephew of the great 'Nique, became a starter.
2. A.I. came back to town for his own Bobblehead night.
3. Now, Jrue Holiday's older brother Justin, star of the Idaho Stampede, has been called up from the D-League.
So cute!
[CBS 3]
Social media experts and holier-than-thou journalists (ahem) will tell you that Twitter changed the way we receive information. The rest of humanity will tell you that Twitter changed the way we receive jokes. Whether it's known local comedians like Chip Chantry or one of the many hilarious local parody accounts, Philly's web presence is teeming with humor. Here, five of the best joke accounts in the city.
Sixers CEO Adam Aron has not been asked yet for a vote of confidence regarding the future of coach Doug Collins, although his tweet in the wake of the team’s titanic meltdown last week in Denver serves as a pretty solid indication that there is a high level of dissatisfaction in the executive suite.
Just as the news was breaking that Andrew Bynum would be missing the rest of the Sixers season, the Newark Star-Ledger tried to find the remaining human beings who liked Andrew Bynum. As it turned out, it wasn't easy. Here are some of the not-so-nice things his own prep school athletic director Jerry Smith had to say.
"Everyone here at school says the same thing: What’s wrong with him? Why does he act like that? He went from someone we’re proud of to someone whose name we don’t even mention anymore."
But he hasn’t exactly been a warm presence...It would just be...
Well, Andrew Bynum's season is officially over, after the moody, perpetually injured center announced he would have arthroscopic surgery on both his knees. The good news is, Bynum's value as a free agent has probably plummeted so drastically, the Sixers could resign him for half what they're paying this year. The bad news is, not a single Sixers fan wants him back right now. For 0 minutes of playing time and $16.5 million, the team gave up: their best player, their best rebounder, and a first-round draft pick. Only the 1992 Barkley-Jeff Hornacek debacle ranks worst. [ESPN]
